Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Zentangle® Awareness in a University

Avinashi Lingam University for Women, Coimbatore, India
March 15, 2016 saw us addressing nearly 200 Under grad and Post grad students of the department of Psychology, thanks to a young bright teacher there, Divya, and her astute HOD Dr Rohini.

Divya was a Post Graduate student of Psychology two years ago in Bangalore, and she was working on a project to counsel trafficking rescued young women. She had also come across Zentangle a few months ago in an exhibition where we had put up a stall exposing Zentangle in Bangalore for the first time! So, she had invited us to try if Zentangle method would work with the rescued women.

And it had worked! The women under depression had brightened up within an hour of teaching them some patterns, and when we revisited them after two days, more than half a dozen of them came running toward us to show their several pages full of Zentangle art work!

Dr Krishna Kumar trying out the Zentangle method

Perhaps this was the reason why Divya thought of inviting us to her University where she had taken up the job of being an Asst Professor of Psychology. She wanted to expose all her students to the healing powers of Zentangle. Her HOD, Dr Rohini saw some meaning and supported the project. Dr Krishna Kumar, the Chancellor of the University and a very prominent and highly respected leading light of Coimbatore (an Industrial hub in south India) instantly liked the idea, and he further extended it by suggesting to have a public talk for the citizens of Coimbatore in the evening!

The result was the attendance of 67 citizens in the evening, and the talk on zentangle as a meditation tool endeared them all.

The Citizens busy attempting Zentangle art!

16th March, 2016 .

The next day we had the regular workshop for the students and professors of the University, and a fresh lot of specialist (psychologists) tanglers was born in yet another city of India!

Interesting part of the interactions with these students of psychology was their questions. Can zentangle patterns, the way the tangler draws them reveal part of his/her personality? Can Zentangle be a tool to diagnose mental health conditions? And many more...

First assisted Zentangle tile by the participants

Students and Professors, both on the same side-being students of Zentangle!